equilibrium
by shiiverse
Summary: It's funny how once she notices his flirting, that's when she also notices everyone else's. / college AU


...where Takane interacts with the cast of Kagerou Project, college AU.

…basically implied Takane x Everyone.

It starts with Haruka Kokonose. (I think you can guess the main pairing of this story, eh?)

It'll follow the order of the Mekakushi Dan after this chapter—Kido, Seto, Kano, Marry, etc.

eh, minor romance here. whooooops

* * *

_chapter one . . . exorsa_

It doesn't make a difference, but today, she _eats_ first before brushing her teeth.

Her first class of the day is about to start, and she still can't seem to work out why the hell did she pour her milk before the cereal, because if there's no cereal left in that what might be a severely under average size of a box—did she get cheated out of those few dollars?—then she's going to have to inhale deeply and shove the cold milk into her throat.

But all's well, she supposes, and digs into her breakfast without much of a word.

Once she's finished dressing and tying and just taking care of her hygiene, she doesn't bother with saying goodbye, 'cause Kido's already out and probably going to nag about her poor sleeping habits once she gets back or catches a glimpse of her hair.

Takane thanks her past self for reminding Kido not to disturb her sleep.

Then she realizes what situation she's currently in and curses out loud, dragging her bag with her as she slams the door and locks it without a word.

She mumbles quiet words of 'hi' to the other students, but other than that, she's far too busy to maintain what could have been a healthy _morning_ conversation with them and simply gets herself out of the dorm. Her mind's wondering if the professor would accept her excuse of staying up too late to complete that proje—

_Wait_, she thinks.

…_Oh my god, today's Kenjirou's class, isn't it?_

* * *

Her heart almost stops when she enters the venue, sitting down on a chair and catching her breath.

If the time it took for her to run was not a world-winning record, then she didn't really want to know just how fast the real _record_ is.

**(**_What if they break their legs or something while running—_**)**

"Good morning, Takane!"

There's suddenly a chirp which resounds throughout her head, vision jerking as she turns to the side. Haruka's smiling at her brightly, placing his textbooks and journal down onto space right beside her messily strewn pens and what not.

Her hands creep slowly to roll the ballpoint pen back towards her area, blinking whilst replying with another small 'hey'. Suddenly she's conscious of her hair and how her attire looks, pulling at her shirt and _casually_ ruffling through her hair. Takane allows a small grin to form on her lips, but even before Haruka can continue his usual greetings, Professor Kenjirou soon comes stumbling in—hair hopefully not a shining example of Takane's own hair.

"Today, we'll be—"

Takane drowns out the rest of his words in a split second, already feeling her mood drop.

Maybe she shouldn't have told Ayano about how her father's teaching was _boring_, because the moment she lets her hand droop, pen tapping against the table, said father was looking up at her intensely—

_…__Dammit._

"Ah, Takane, could you please answer my question?"

She blinks once, twice, maybe even thrice, staring at his old wrinkled face. It's not really that wrinkled, but Kenjirou's _old._

"Uh—"

She trips on her own words once, twice, maybe even thrice too, and around half the class is also staring at her, diligently watching her actions.

It's not like all of them really cared about if she responded or not, but having that many pair of eyes on her was bound to make her feel _nervous._ Still, that's when she notices Haruka's mouth, lips moving in silent words.

…

She can feel her cheeks heating up at how long it takes for her to get what he's trying to say.

Takane answers her professor with a grace that she's never shown or experienced before, doing her best to show a smile to the older man as her eye slightly twitches.

Kenjirou only claps his hand together, nodding.

It's _almost as if_ he saw the interaction between Haruka and her.

_Hahahaha—_

_Shit._

* * *

"Takane, Takane! Hey, do you want to eat together?"

She stops her hands from zipping her bag, stops her legs from shaking, stops her eyes from even flickering up to face the male. Even her mouth can't seem to move, from the way she seems to be slowly shutting down her internal functions one by one.

"…What?" she slowly questions, finding the willpower to stiffly crane her neck to face Haruka.

He tilts his head to the side, a hand adjusting his own bag as he answers,

"Eat lunch together! Both of us have a break here, so I was wondering if you wanted to eat together?"

She blinks as she nods.

"Uh, okay."

Delight shown on Haruka's face, Takane clears her throat as she begins to follow him.

They don't say much.

When Haruka and her are settled down, trays in front, she finds herself releasing a breath that she didn't even know she was holding. The fork glints in her hand as she takes a bite out of her food, chewing as silently and slowly as she can. Her gaze lingers on Haruka and she watches—silently, observing just how excited he looks.

It appears that she might have been staring for a while, because Haruka notices.

Her breath hitches as she stills, **(**_shiiiit_**) **but Haruka only tilts his head to the side, bemusement apparent on his face.

"Do you want some?"

And _of course_ he thinks that Takane's reasons for looking is _food_.

She's lucky that Haruka was clueless to this type of things, lucky that he didn't think even _deeper_ and perhaps looked between the lines. She was lucky that Haruka understood what he was eating happened to be one of Takane's favourites t—hey, wait a minute, she didn't even notice that until he mentioned it!

"A—Ah, s—sure," she catches herself stuttering, a hand gripping the table. Her smile is slightly crooked, bordering sheepish as she gulps. Takane isn't trying to calm herself, instead, she's trying to _prevent_ herself from saying any more _stupid things _or committing any more acts that might make any one around her all the more suspicious.

**(**_If Ayano was here…_**)**

"Oh? Tsubomiii! She's over here!"

Takane notices how Haruka's eyes flicker over to the person who spoke. She notices his posture slouching by a margin.

She notices how the smile falters slightly.

"Good afternoon, Kano," Haruka greets, and his smile becomes more of a grin.

Despite the blond being here, cracking a cheesy joke as he begins the usual pleasantries, Takane's attention is only focused on the other green-haired girl who's strolling towards her and Haruka's table, focused on how her features become more pronounced until they become a glare—

_focused_ on Kido Tsubomi.

**(**_Three, two, one_,**) **she counts, and even when she reaches zero, Shuuya's still oblivious to the girl standing behind him.

"I said to wait for me, didn't I?"

"Aa—"

Takane winces.


End file.
